Touring Italy

From now on, I am including a link to the shutterfly Web site because some people have told me that they haven’t gotten an e-mail notifying them that I have added new pictures. That way if you get the e-mail, great! If not, you will have a link to look at them. Every time I send an email out, there will be new pictures added from that country that you can follow the link too.

http://milenartwtrip.shutterfly.com/

I had been to Italy before in 2003 and went to Rome, Florence and Venice. This time, I wanted to concentrate on smaller cities and really get a feel of the country.

VENICE

Before I can tell you about Venice, I have to tell you about the 36-hour ferry ride from Greece to Venice. I have never been on a cruise, but I feel like our ferry was a miniature cruise ship because there were restaurants, a pool, bars and even a casino on the ferry. With my Eurorail ticket I got free deck passage, which essentially means that I would have to sleep outside on the deck. I was told that I could pay the upcharge and get a cabin, which I was planning on doing. Of course, they had no cabins available. I ended up sneaking into another section which was indoors and sleeping in a reclining chair for both nights because I would be miserable on the open deck. The thing that I could not believe was just how common deck passage was though. I saw entire families, some with 2-year-old-children, sleeping on the deck in sleeping bags. There were people with tents, others just sleeping on yoga mats and were exposed to the weather. It was so different than what I was used to. I bonded with a Canadian, Danielle, because we were so taken aback by this.

The other neat thing was that as we were arriving in Venice we saw the World Cruise Ship. This is the world’s largest private yacht and it’s a residential community. The residents own the yacht, they live on board, and the ship circumnavigates the globe. There is a grocery store, casino, movie theater, you name it. It has a 165 residences and they can cost up to $7.3 million dollars per residence. Holy Crap!

Now on to Venice — I got to tell you, coming in by ferry to Venice is a great way to get introduced to the city. In 2003, when I was here, we came via train so I didn’t get the amazing views. The moment I saw it I remembered how much I love this city and the country in general.

The very first thing I did when I got into town was get some gelato. Sure it was 10 a.m., but is it really ever too early to eat gelato? Then, I walked all over Venice for a couple of hours before heading out of town to a small city about an hour west, Vicenza. I went straight to the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) and saw the Basilica di San Marco. I forgot how breathtakingly beautiful this church is. And for me to think a church is impressive, well, it’s got to just be incredible because I have seen so many churches. As my friend Megan says, I’m at the point where it’s ABC, (Another Bloody Church.) It’s just amazing though, with all the detail work that is put into this place.

I saw all the people feeding the pigeons in the Square, which I did the last time I was here. I thought about shouting out “I love this woman” like in the DeBeers commercial, but seeing as I was alone, I passed as it would look like a huge declaration of my love for myself — which would be a little weird.

After this I just wandered around Venice and got lost, because the streets are so confusing, but I didn’t care because I was lost in Italy. I love Venice, it’s such a cool city to me. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to actually live there. I get such a kick out of the everyday logistics that it takes to run a city that is built on water. The post office delivers the mail by speedboat and all the various delivery boats delivering the bread and other items to the restaurants for the day.

VICENZA

This is a smaller city about an hour west of Venice. I was staying here with the uncle of a girlfriend of mine from high school, Sara Alonso. (Translation: Milena will do anything for free accommodation) Her Uncle Leo is in the U.S. Army and stationed there, so I lucked out by getting to go on base. You should of seen me at the commissary (grocery store), I was so excited. Not only were things crazy cheap because they were on the dollar versus the euro, but they were regular U.S. prices, not Manhattan prices like I was used to. I probably looked like I was on SuperMarket Sweep the way I was going up and down the aisles. I stocked up on basics, got some peanut butter (the travel size ones by Jif I was just missing!) and even got my Oprah and People magazines. When you’re traveling, they are such a treat!

I just enjoyed my time in a real Italian city, got to do laundry (thanks again!), and was low key. I did do a day trip to Verona; I didn’t realize it was only 45 minutes away via train. It was great to get a little dose of American culture to energize me for the rest of my trip.

VERONA

I really didn’t know much about Verona before I went, just that it’s where Romeo and Juliet took place. I didn’t realize that the story of Romeo and Juliet was inspired by a real couple in Verona during the time the Della Scala (Scaligeri) family ruled in the 14th century. I went to the house of Juliet, which was a 14th century house that has the famous balcony. I took lots of fun pictures of me up on the balcony looking for my own Romeo. There is also a statue of Juliet in the courtyard and superstition says that if you rub her right breast you will get a new lover. It was funny to see how shiny her breast was from all the people who rubbed it looking for love.

Another thing that Verona is known for is their Roman amphitheater, which can seat 200,000 people. It’s the third largest in existence and is still used today to a concert and opera venue. Can you imagine seeing a real Italian opera, in Italy, in a Roman arena that has been around since the first century? I am not an opera person, but I had wished I had know ahead of time because I would of gotten tickets. It was fun seeing the people all dressed up to go to the opera, I was jealous. The night I was there was Rigoletto was being preformed, and Carmen was the following night.

Not only is there a Roman amphitheater, but there is a Roman theatre where the Shakespeare festival takes place as well as jazz concerts and dance reviews. For a smaller city, there is so much to do!

Verona is such a sweet and romantic city with little streets to wander around in. Even though there were some touristy things, you could still feel tell that it was an authentic Italian city and I could see people going about their daily lives. I was there on a Saturday night and I was amazed at how many couples and families were just out taking a stroll around the town. I stopped at a little corner store where the locals buy their mozzarella and proscuitto, and got a tomato stuffed with cheese and topped with breadcrumbs — so good! I loved all the little streets and the the entire vibe of the city. I wish I had spent more time here, I had just a glimpse of what it would be like to live here, and I loved what I saw.

CINQUE TERRE

If you can only go to one place in Italy, it should be the Cinque Terre. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!! When I become a multi-billionaire, I will have a house here. (That is one house here and one house in Switzerland, in case you were keeping count)

The term Cinque Terre translates to “The Five Lands” and refers to the rugged portion of the coast of the Riviera and is composed of five small towns, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia Manorola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline and the actual towns are all enclosed in the Cinque Terre National Park and there is a Via dell’Amore (Lovers Walk) that links them all together. There are all these declarations of love carved into the stone you pass by and peoples initials carved into trees, it’s very romantic.

I ended up staying in the town of Riomaggiore because I had heard this was the least touristy and more authentic than the others. My first night there I got dinner at a little trattoria and when a nice American mom and daughter, Linda and Kate, saw I was eating by myself, they invited me over. We had a great time at dinner and decided that we would hike the Cinque Terre tomorrow together. (You can hike the path between them, it’s about 7 miles, or 12 kilometers. But don’t worry, Íf you don’t like hiking there is also a train and ferry to connect all the towns)

The next morning we set out at 9 a.m. to hike the Cinque! (Again, who knew I liked hiking so much?) We were feeling pretty good about ourselves as we were making good time and really working up a good sweat. Of course, then we had a good dose of humility as a stunning Italian woman (with the best body I have ever seen — muscular, tanned, thick where you’re suppose to be) casually jogged up the steps that we were stopped on to catch our breath. We all cursed her underneath our breath and continued hiking on to Vernazza, where we stopped and had lunch. We accidentally went the wrong direction out of Vernazza and ended up hiking in the wrong direction. After backtracking and adding on an hour and a half onto our hike, we continued on.

We finally reached the end of our hike (7-and-a-half-hours later) and rewarded ourselves with a dip in the Riviera. Linda had a pedometer on and we figured out that by the end of the day we had hiked 37,000 steps, which is roughly 18 miles. Once you see the pictures of the view, you will understand how it’s easy to walk this much. Needless to say though, I didn’t feel guilty about my meal that night and slept incredibly well.

PISA

I ended up going to Pisa by chance. I was going to fly to Valencia for the La Tomatina festival from Milan but didn’t realize that this was three hours away from the Cinque Terre versus Pisa was only one hour away. So my original plan was to see the leaning tower and then fly over to Valencia.

Things didn’t go as planned, (you’ll hear about that later), but I did get a couple of hours in Pisa, which is all you really need. I walked to the leaning tower, which is at a 4 degree lean. The actual area that it is in is beautiful. I got to do all the cheesy pictures that I wanted. (In case you can’t already tell, I am all about the silly or cheesy pictures). I did the standby one of me pretending to hold it up, because you just have to do it. I also tried to do one where it looked like I was doing a judo kick and knocking it over, but they kept coming out blurred. Oh well.

ITALIAN FOOD

I think you already know what I am going to say about the food. Amazing, Incredible, Delicious, basically any positive adjective that you can think of for food — it lives up to each of these words. I can honestly say that Italy and Greece have had the best food so far on this trip. But then again, what is not to love about Italian food?

In the region of the Cinque Terre, they are known for their pesto sauce and their foccacia bread. I tried the regional speciality, trofie pasta (Fat twisted pasta) in pesto and their regional wine, which came in a little carafe. You had two choices, red or white, and it was the best wine — and cheap!!

On my last night in Italy, I went to dinner with Kate and her mom at a little restaurant in our town, Riomaggiore. I got gnocchi (my favorite!) but it was filled with pompomdora and mozzarella and then came in a four cheese sauce. OMG!!! It was incredible. I had never had a filled gnochhi before, and I was in love with it.

Now onto my favorite thing ever — Gelato. If you haven’t had it, your probably thinking, it couldn’t be that much better than ice cream. BUT IT IS!!! Oh my god, I love it. You have to try it, I can honestly say that you haven’t lived until you have had gelato. Of course the best is the homemade in Italy, but go out and try some in the States, I think that there is a brand called Ciao Bella that is available everywhere. You’ll thank me later.

ITALIAN CULTURE

In my next life, I would like to come back as an Italian. I have always secretly wanted to be Italian because there culture is so rich and has so much personality. I am so in love with their culture, their language, their food, their men … it really is the most romantic place in my mind. It’s so relaxing and peaceful there, I didn’t want to leave. It really is La Dolce Vita … The Sweet Life. I kept waiting for a handsome Italian man to propose to me and give me a reason to stay, but it didn’t happen so I had to move on. =(

The people in Italy are warm, friendly, and passionate about their culture and country. And the men are so chivalrous, my bag was always carried for me and I was called Bella (beautiful) all the time by the men — even after I had hiked the Cinque Terre and was all sweaty.

Of course, food and religion are important parts of their life. Even on the Via Dell’Amore there were so many religious pictures and a statue of the Virgin Mary which was surprising to me because it was a National Park and I am used to church and state being separate.

The different pastel color houses are very big and stereotypical in Italy. Especially on the coast, they are so picturesque.

For me, it was very humorous to see the differences between the real Italian men in Italy and some of the stereotypical Italian-American men on the East Coast. I didn’t see a single teenager walking around in a wife beater, with a huge gold chain around his neck listening to techno music.

NEXT …

I am off to Spain for La Tomatina (the food fight with the tomatoes) and then maybe pop over to Morocco .

RANDOM THOUGHTS …

So what happens when you turn 16 in Venice? Do you get your own boat to get around town? Or maybe the water equivalent of a scooter — like a jet ski?

When I am in Italy everything is in relation to gelato … If I stay at a cheaper hostel, I’ll have more money for gelato. If I hike for 10 more minutes, that means that I can have more gelato. Or I shouldn’t get have that big of a dinner, so I have room for gelato.

The word Prego has soooo many meanings. I couldn’t figure them all out. It was used like “You’re welcome” but then I was also greeted with it. I think it has about 13 meanings. And I thought it was just a spaghetti sauce.

In case you were wondering, there really is nothing more depressing than being in Italy by yourself. The only thing that could of made it worse was if it was Valentines Day or if you were there with your mom. (Just kidding Kate!!)